RUSH — Permanent Waves (review)

RUSH — Permanent Waves album cover Album · 1980 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Unitron
Permanent Waves is the seventh studio album from progressive/hard rock band Rush.

Coming into the 80's after the four-track spacey hard rock behemoth of Hemispheres, Rush must have felt that they had exhausted that sound which I do believe they did. Permanent Waves shows a smooth transition from the epic space hard rock of the past few albums and into a more accessible yet still unique style. Don't worry, this isn't Rush becoming a Foreigner or REO Speedwagon, this is still hard rock/heavy metal with space rock elements and philosophical lyricism.

Unlike the past several albums, Permanent Waves features no songs longer than ten minutes, with most songs being 4-5 minutes long. The opening two songs, "The Spirit of Radio" and "Freewill", propelled the band into popularity with the former still getting tons of radio airplay today. The latter is one of the best on the album. Along with being a catchy song with Peart's usual fantastic lyricism, Alex Lifeson's guitar solo here just shreds. It's easily one of my favorite guitar solos of all time.

The two other short songs, "Entre Nous" and "Different Strings", I feel are criminally underrated. The former is a really good hard rocker in the same vein of "Freewill", while the latter takes a much softer melancholy sound before a killer solo at the end. This is one of Rush's most beautiful songs, and one of my favorites. Lifeson's acoustics and quiet electric guitars, Geddy Lee's vocal performance, Peart's steady drums, and the bittersweet piano all work together to create a sublime song.

The two epic tracks are among Rush's best. "Jacob's Ladder" is a dark and brooding with a symphonic atmosphere and marching riffing. "Natural Science" is easily in my top five Rush songs, having everything that makes Rush and this album so damn great: Shredding solos, a dark yet bittersweet tone, thoughtful lyricism, and all musicians in top form. I can't put my love for this song in words, it's something that you have to listen to rather than read about.

Permanent Waves was the start of a new decade for Rush, and I'm glad they took the length down a bit on this album as the title suite from Hemispheres really suffered from too many ideas and not being gripping enough. The band knew they had burnt out their engines for 20-minute suites, but they didn't make a drastic change. They kept their core sound, while being a bit more accessible which isn't always easy to do. If you like spacey heavy/hard rock this is essential listening. Hope you found this review helpful, feel free to comment!
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